Omar Gutierrez – CatholicVote.orghttps://www.catholicvote.org
The mission of CatholicVote.org is to educate and inspire Americans of all faiths to prioritize the issues of life, faith, and family.Tue, 20 Mar 2018 02:09:37 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.2The Catholic Vote Radio Hour is a program where the dogma lives loudly.CatholicVote.orgcleanepisodicCatholicVote.orgmercer@catholicvote.orgmercer@catholicvote.org (CatholicVote.org)No mules were harmed in the making of this episodeOmar Gutierrez – CatholicVote.orghttp://catholicvote.org/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/cv-podcast-469.pnghttps://www.catholicvote.org
mercer@catholicvote.orgThe Catholic Vote Radio Hour is a program where the dogma lives loudly. No $10 Dream: Rubio on Povertyhttps://www.catholicvote.org/no-10-dream-rubio-on-poverty/
https://www.catholicvote.org/no-10-dream-rubio-on-poverty/#commentsFri, 10 Jan 2014 15:17:19 +0000http://www.catholicvote.org/?p=57069What’s more, his analysis and proposals for dealing with poverty in America seem to be a faithful presentation of Catholic Social Teaching. Whether he meant it or not, I do believe that they are more faithful than that which sadly passes for social justice in the Democratic Party in their war against poverty.

Rubio is spot on at the beginning when he speaks about the importance of the livable wage. This is exactly the language of the Church and its insistence on the right to a just wage, a living wage or a family wage. It is a wage which, as the Senator says, allows Americans “to live a happy and fulfilling life. To earn a livable wage in a good job. To have the time to spend with family and do the things they enjoy. To be able to retire with security. And to give their own kids a chance to do as well or better than themselves.” This language is very close to the language of the Church.

Rubio is exactly right again when he says that we are wrong to focus on the income gap. The principle in Catholic Social Teaching of the Universal Destination of Goods does not tell us that gaps in wealth are per se wrong. Rather, to quote the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church:

“The universal destination of goods means that all persons must have access to the goods God gives us so that all persons can reach their fulfillment physically, intellectually, and spiritually more fully and more easily.”

Poverty may exist, but the point is that the poor should have access to those goods which make it possible to improve on their lives. The language of the Church itself contains a sense of the movement of the poor from poverty to security. The poor must be able to “reach their fulfillment.” Rubio is on the mark, then, when he says that it is not income equality that is the problem in our nation. It is the “lack of mobility.” It is the fact that “70% of children born in poverty will never make it to the middle class.” That is the problem. And so he is correct that “we must close this gap in opportunity.”

He goes on to point out that the effort of the Democratic Party to raise the minimum wage is exactly the wrong one. He said, “Raising the minimum wage may poll well, but having a job that pays $10 an hour is not the American Dream.” I should like to address the problems with the minimum wage elsewhere, but for now the point Rubio makes is stark and sensible. Raising the minimum wage does not, indeed cannot, address this problem of mobility in our country. It is not only not a good answer to our problems; it is an obstacle to finding the solution to them.

Why? Rubio hits the nail on the head. Large, federal programs that push a “one-size-fits-all approach” fail to account for the variations in communities, the differences in effective approaches across the states. Ultimately they ignore the principle of subsidiarity. Yes, “subsidiarity”! $10.10 an hour means something far different in Omaha than it does in Manhattan. Pretending this is not the case doesn’t help the poor and it hurts businesses as well as the young who are already suffering the worst unemployment rates they’ve seen in decades.

And though he doesn’t use the word “subsidiarity,” Rubio’s suggestion is that we reform the way we approach poverty in America by moving towards a system that shows greater respect for local leaders.

The principle of subsidiarity insists that larger organizations help smaller, more local organizations function in whatever work they must. So Rubio argues that the federal government should provide states with a “revenue neutral Flex Fund.” This would allow the states to “design and fund creative initiatives that address the factors behind inequality of opportunity.” The local community, after all, is more aware of what the local community needs. Here’s how he put it:

“It’s wrong for Washington to tell Tallahassee what programs are right for the people of Florida – but it’s particularly wrong for it to say that what’s right for Tallahassee is the same thing that’s right for Topeka and Sacramento and Detroit and Manhattan and every other town, city and state in the country.”

This needed to be said. Indeed, it’s been said before, but it needs to be repeated again and again. Subsidiarity must be factored into our considerations of solidarity. Rubio strikes that balance as later he refers to the role of the federal government in subsidies for low wages and other solidarity-building initiatives. He seems to have a sense of the balance which is necessary, a balance lacking in the initiatives that come from the political left.

Here, in Rubio’s speech we see a fine example of how authentic Catholic Social Teaching can be implemented. More of this needs to happen, and those Catholic Congressmen who are listening ought to pay attention to this sort of thinking. Appeals to real reforms that could help the working class are what will win the hearts and minds and votes of the many Catholics who are tired of a Republican Party constantly defending lower taxes for the rich. These reforms may also invite a change in those Catholics who have long suspected that the Democratic Party’s “devotion” to the social teaching has been self serving and empty.

Rubio’s suggestions may not be possible with a Congress as dysfunctional as it is. But it is a vision for addressing poverty, really addressing it, instead of engaging in the tired ideas which are received by others.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/no-10-dream-rubio-on-poverty/feed/25The Abolition of Modern Slaveryhttps://www.catholicvote.org/the-abolition-of-modern-slavery/
https://www.catholicvote.org/the-abolition-of-modern-slavery/#respondWed, 07 Aug 2013 23:00:15 +0000http://www.catholicvote.org/?p=53536Well on the same day that the story broke about a week ago, I received a visitor to my office who gave me an insight into that story. He has been working against human trafficking for a few years now through a new abolitionist movement, a movement that I believe is the new frontier for pro-life activity, and may be a movement that can finally unite “social justice” Catholics and pro-life Catholics.

Nicholas Canuso is the Director of Faith Abolitionists. My conversation with him was enlightening and chilling. It was a happenstance visit that I will not soon forget as I sat and listened to his stories of modern day slavery. That’s one of the first things that struck me about his story. Human trafficking is something we think about happening in other nations, in Southeast Asia or in Africa. And in those cases, we tend not to think of it as what it is: slavery. Slavery exists. Slavery is alive. And because there is modern day slavery there are modern day abolitionists. But what I discovered is that slavery is alive and well here in the United States. It is everywhere and all around us… even here in Omaha, Nebraska.

Nick told me about “magazine crews,” about which I had never heard. This story sums it up thoroughly. What I learned from Nick and my own research is that people are promised a chance to travel and make money. Sometimes the victims are young adults not doing well at school who are promised a chance to earn experience and money. Sometimes it is people down on their luck just looking for some work. Sometimes the parents even grant consent to complete strangers who offer to feed and house their kids and help them child earn money for college. These young people, raised on T.V. shows that teach them more about shopping than about common sense, leave their homes to go on the road to sell magazines. Travel and income. Who wouldn’t go? But once on the road, it turns out that magazine sales are required to earn food and hotel rooms. No sales? No food. No room. No rights.

The crew members turn to hustling, taught by their handlers, so that they can bring in quotas for their bosses. “Buy a subscription and we send a dollar to St. Jude’s,” is one line they use… anything to get more sales. Why are they so desperate? Bosses are sometimes physically violent, certainly verbally abusive. Some crew members are just left by the side of the road, away from any resources if they don’t produce or aren’t willing to hustle and lie. Before long, the crew members are deep in debt and have to find other ways to pay off their obligations. Slave labor turns into forced prostitution.

The breadth of this problem is so vast that it is no wonder we don’t like to think about it. Last week, the FBI rounded up around 150 pimps in 76 different cities. Children as young as 13 are caught up in it, and the numbers are getting worse. It is big business and, yes, it is mostly slavery in the sex trade. Gangs and organized crime target vulnerable young people and children regardless of their socio-economic situation. Nick told me about girls recruited right from under their parents’ noses. Worse, it is not always recruitment. Sometimes it is out and out kidnapping.

What is driving human trafficking? Porn and a media culture that is forever convincing us that the most important thing in life is sex. When there is the World Cup or the Olympics or a Super Bowl, prostitutes are flown in to handle all the extra “business.” Those women are not part of circuit of professionals. They are slaves. Free, constant access to pornography has, surprise surprise, driven higher demand for prostitution along with more lurid forms of pornography including child pornography and rape pornography.

Oddly, conservatives and liberals defend pornography and rail against any censorship by the State. David Cameron, the Prime Minister of England, wanted to protect children by censoring pornography on the internet. Perhaps his approach will work or perhaps it won’t. But I stood confounded by the response by conservatives like Charles C. W. Cooke who called it a “power grab” by the ever-intrusive English State. Liberals argued that the plan would never work because the filters don’t and seemed to shrug their collective shoulders “Oh well.” Meanwhile children are kidnapped and women are violated in the name of liberty. Hail Britannia.

This line from Cooke’s piece is particularly disturbing:

Well, I do not watch ‘rape porn,’ nor do I want to; nor, for that matter, do I imagine that it does no harm at all. Who honestly knows? But the defense here is not of ‘rape porn,’ it is of the liberty of consenting adults, of the capacity of private companies to provide access to legal material without state preemption, and — most important — of a spectacularly successful Internet whose astonishing, inexorable growth has been the product of its remaining unregulated, decentralized, and ultimately backed up by the American First Amendment.

Do we see now by Pope Gregory XVI called freedom of conscience an insanity? The FBI agents in America who deal with human trafficking know the harm done, Mr. Cooke. The mothers of the 13 year old girls and boys know. It does great harm. It is not merely about consenting adults, for that’s the great lie of pornography. They want us to believe that the women engaged are happy to be doing this work. But they are not happy, for they are not free.

I learned last week that I need to know more about how to fight against human trafficking and about being a modern abolitionist. I was also affirmed in knowing that the Church’s teachings on sexuality are not means of repression but truly the way to free us from the real slavery that afflicts our culture. And I learned that the work for the pro-life movement must expand not just to religious liberty and conscience rights in the face of a hostile government but to the question of modern slavery. I pray that we all become abolitionists.

To learn more about what the FBI does about human trafficking, visit their Innocence Lost Project. Also, check out Nick Canuso’s work with Faith Abolitionists through Facebook.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/the-abolition-of-modern-slavery/feed/0Shamelesshttps://www.catholicvote.org/shameless/
https://www.catholicvote.org/shameless/#commentsThu, 25 Jul 2013 15:35:53 +0000http://www.catholicvote.org/?p=52925We live in a nation of liars. I suppose that has been the case for a long while since we are all fallen creatures. Lying is just part of what it means to struggle with sin. So maybe I should say that we’ve become a nation just so totally inoculated to lying that we have ceased to see the shamelessness of it all.

Ryan Braun, the star third baseman for the beleaguered Milwaukee Brewers, said to us a year ago that he would stake his life on the fact that he has not used performance enhancing drugs. In 2007 he was rookie of the year. He was the NL’s MVP in 2011. Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers even staked his next year’s salary on Braun’s innocence. Turns out, Braun was lying the whole time.

The vehemence of his self-defense reminds me of Lance Armstrong who, in January of this year, finally admitted to doping in order to achieve his unbelievable (literally) seven Tour de France wins. Armstrong so strongly insisted on his innocence that he lost friends and colleagues along the way. He even tried to destroy the lives of people who came out telling the truth.

Or how about Anthony Weiner who is running for Mayor of New York and about whom my good friend Carson Holloway writes here? Remember how Weiner denied Andrew Breitbart’s accusation of sexting? Remember how the media ignored Breitbart until, well, they couldn’t because there were the pictures proving it all.

Epically, we had Bill Clinton, the President of the United States, tell us that he did not have sexual relations with “that woman.” Except that he did.

I suppose none of this is too surprising in a secular culture based on bling and competition. Our children may learn one thing from Sesame Street, but they are taught just the opposite in every movie and t.v. show they watch. “Win, beat the other guy, have fun, hook up, don’t disrespect me, you’re awesome and can do no wrong,” these are the messages our culture feeds us. Why should it shock me that so many lie? Still, I guess it’s not that they lie but that they are so devoid of shame for what they’ve done.

Growing up I remember my mother yelling at us when we had done something wrong, saying sinverguenza (she tended to switch to Spanish when we got in trouble). The word means “shameless.” For it is one thing to fail, to sin, to stumble. It is another thing altogether to be shameless. Someone who’s shameless has something the matter in their soul that needs to be worked out. That’s what disturbs me most about our culture.

Huma Abendin, the wife of Anthony Weiner, garnered a great deal of humility after the sexting scandal hit. It was clear that her husband had serious problems. That she decided to stick with him could have been a great sign of just what one is supposed to do when marriage is on the line. Except that, he had continued his behavior after his disgrace. Also, he now wants to be mayor of, arguably, the most important city in the United States. Thus, Ms. Abedin’s defense of her husband in the name of his mayoral run is sinverguenza.

Ryan Braun and Lance Armstrong, after finally being caught red handed, could no longer deny their sin. But instead of shame and contrition they both prevaricated: “Well, I’m not perfect,” or “I know I’ve made some mistakes in my life.” Cheating for years at a game you say you love is a mistake? Lying through your teeth to everyone, media, friends, loved ones about it was a mistake? No, spilling coffee on your mother-in-law’s lap is a mistake. Watching the new Gosling/Refn movie would be a mistake. Messing with Texans is a mistake. What Braun and Armstrong are doing is sinverguenza.

Redemption is central to the Christian message. Don’t get me wrong. I hope that other people can find redemption or else there is little hope for me. But then I don’t ask the world to overlook my sin as some sort of accident, as a trick played on me by the universe. Part of redemption is admitting your failure as your failure and having the common sense enough to realize that the common good requires trust. Trust is in short supply in America, and ball players who can’t be trusted to play straight shouldn’t be playing. And politicians who can’t be trusted to keep their marriages sacred for more than a few weeks shouldn’t be running for anything.

So ban Braun for more than just a season or fine him through the nose. Weiner should be forced out of the race by the Democratic Party not the national media. That’s how grownups behave, and we need more of those.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/shameless/feed/4The Faith To Lead In Lovehttps://www.catholicvote.org/the-faith-to-lead-in-love/
https://www.catholicvote.org/the-faith-to-lead-in-love/#commentsSat, 06 Jul 2013 13:51:39 +0000http://www.catholicvote.org/?p=52476In Lumen fidei (The light of faith), Pope Francis’s first encyclical, he shows us more of his simple style and central themes which have been the constant undercurrent in his daily homilies and Wednesday audiences. Short and clear, the document from the still-new Pontiff provides us with an accessible teaching about the importance of faith to family, society, theology and Church at a time when everywhere secular individualism is the rule of the day.

In the first few paragraphs the Holy Father makes it clear why defending faith is important, “for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim.” (#4) This question of faith extends beyond the Christian or Catholic context and into the wider culture. All of society suffers if faith is not defended. This is a crucial message as we fight now and with increasing frequency for faith in the public square.

Having just celebrated Independence Day in the United States, Americans may still have the words of the Declaration of Independence fresh on their minds: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights….” Without faith, however, the self-evident truths of equality granted by a creator are not so self-evident. It is exactly this faith in a God who taught us of our fundamental human dignity that makes something like the Declaration meaningful and possible.

Pope Francis recalls the words of the pagan Celsus who saw no real difference between the actions of man “and those of the ants and bees.” (#54) It was the Christian God who elevated man’s status in the cosmos and so provided for us the foundation for something like fundamental human rights. Pope Francis is also clear that this faith, so important for appreciating our fundamental dignity, is not an isolating faith.

We read that the faith begins with a relationship. Faith, he tells us is “our response to a word which engages us personally, to a ‘Thou’ who calls us by name.” (#8) Faith directs us to truth, but “the truth which faith discloses to us is a truth centered on an encounter with Christ, on the contemplation of his life and on the awareness of his presence.” (#30)

The encounter with this “Thou,” with the God who is willing to become one of us and to suffer and die for us, is an encounter that opens our eyes, ears, hearts and minds to a completely new reality. This reality bears the fullness of truth about human nature but also the fullness of who we are as individuals. We are not just talking about an alternative lifestyle but rather about a fundamentally new way of looking at reality which can set us free. Indeed, faith does not just open our eyes, but it also allows us to see everything as Christ sees it. Our blindness without faith is not the inability to see anything, it is the inability to see ourselves and our neighbor for who we really are.

In this way, the faith connects us with each other. The common good is only truly understood in the context of faith. This is an important principle in the social teaching of the Catholic Church, but it is one wholly lost on many dissenting Catholics who hope to defend their support for candidates who advance horrid crimes against humanity. As some Catholics argue about the bishops’ stance on abortion or religious liberty, the words of the Pope here remind them that faith is the foundation of an authentic justice. You desire social justice? Then see with the eyes of faith and not with the eyes of political expediency.

Ultimately, the liberal, secular project to build a brotherhood outside the context of faith is one doomed to failure. “Brotherhood, lacking a reference to a common Father as its ultimate foundation, cannot endure.” (#54) So a country wholly free from having to listen to pastors preach about social policy, or free from having to respect the consciences of business owners, or free from having to consider whether late term abortions are indeed infanticide is a country shackled to liberal individualism. Faith teaches us that sacred ground is not being free from answering tough questions, but rather free to answer them in the context of the fundamental dignity of all human life. Would that our Catholic politicians read this with care.

Similarly, the faith makes us more keenly aware of the suffering of the poor. Christian charity is not just humanitarianism, but rather a deeply held care for those whom Jesus loved so dearly. Faith helps us put aside fears about our personal wealth, in order to more generously offer our aid to all those who seek the fundamental goods of human existence.

The encyclical also has something to say to dissident theologians who believe it is their calling to push the Magisterium toward a development which contradicts the truth of faith. “Theology,” we read, “must be at the service of the faith of Christians, that is must work humbly to protect and deepen the faith of everyone, especially ordinary believers.” (#36) Woe, then, to those who see their work as theologians to free the young minds of ordinary believers from the faith of the Church. And the Pope warns theologians who wish to ignore the Magisterium as the norm for Catholic faith, “for the Magisterium ensures our contact with the primordial source and thus provides the certainty of attaining to the word of Christ in all its integrity.” To deny even just one aspect of the faith, writes the Holy Father, “is tantamount to distorting the whole.” The cafeteria is still closed.

Lumen fidei is conscious of the challenges of today. References to pagan philosophers and even Nietzsche show that the Holy Father is aware of the voices which bombard the public square. Faith is seen today as a limit to our human desires. Idolatry is a way of seizing control over our own lives while ultimately shackling ourselves. Some have a faith in a foreign God who lives distant from everyday lives. In the end, faith today suffers from a “massive amnesia,” says Pope Francis. We have forgotten where our sense of those self-evident truths came from.

The timing of this encyclical is fortuitous for we in the United States who are battling a government and society bent on removing the faith from the public square. After having our faith about human sexuality labeled as hateful by the U.S. Supreme Court, this encyclical shores up the conviction that our faith founded on an authentic understanding of human nature is the starting point for what is truly the common good.

All the more reason, then, for the Church to continue to stand up for the truth of the faith in the public square and to remind society of the Christian underpinnings it has forgotten. In doing so, the Church preaches the social teaching and helps to build up a just society. The laity is especially called to live the faith in the public square. We can live it in the work place and in the culture in a way the bishops and pastors cannot. By bringing our faith into the open, we help to advance the foundations of our republic. This is why the question of religious liberty is so important.

That said, Pope Francis has not given us a battle cry in this encyclical. Rather, he has given us an invitation. He is calling us into deeper relationship with Christ Jesus so that we might deepen our faith and so given a better witness for it in the public square. The focus must always be on Christ. It cannot be on public policy. We shall not triumph with arguments, but with lives lived in witness to the love of Jesus.

Faith is an encounter with truth, and that truth is the love of God for all of us. Outside of God, nowhere is that love so clearly expressed than in our mother Mary. Pope Francis ends his encyclical with a beautiful prayer to Our Lady to remind us that by her help we can begin to believe and to live the faith in her Son, Jesus Christ. In so doing we might have enough faith to lead in love.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/the-faith-to-lead-in-love/feed/5A Simple Prayer Method From A Simple Pontiffhttps://www.catholicvote.org/a-simple-prayer-method-from-a-simple-pontiff/
https://www.catholicvote.org/a-simple-prayer-method-from-a-simple-pontiff/#commentsTue, 02 Apr 2013 14:10:30 +0000http://www.catholicvote.org/?p=46459It is becoming increasingly clear that our Pope Francis is a pope who, as Stephen White put it, smells like his sheep. He is a man of his people, and a father who communicates to his people in a fashion that they seem to like.

More evidence of this is a means to prayer that the Holy Father authored when he was still the Archbishop in Argentina. It is a lovely way to pray, and it showcases Pope Francis’ sense of simplicity, his priority for family, his love for the poor and also his recognition that prayer is powerful.

Readers may already know the prayer. It has been around for a while, but several sources are saying that it was written by Cardinal Bergoglio. I should note as well that it was attributed to him well before he became Pope Francis.

So here it is: Pope Francis’ five finger prayer guide. (Go here for the Spanish)

1. The thumb is the closest finger to you. So start praying for those who are closest to you. They are the persons easiest to remember. To pray for our dear ones is a “sweet obligation.”

2. The next finger is the index. Pray for those who teach you, instruct you and heal you. They need the support and wisdom to show direction to others. Always keep them in your prayers.

3. The following finger is the tallest. It reminds us of our leaders, the governors and those who have authority. They need God’s guidance.

4. The fourth finger is the ring finger. Even that it may surprise you, it is our weakest finger. It should remind us to pray for the weakest, the sick or those plagued by problems. They need your prayers.

5. And finally we have our smallest finger, the smallest of all. Your pinkie should remind you to pray for yourself. When you are done praying for the other four groups, you will be able to see your own needs but in the proper perspective, and also you will be able to pray for your own needs in a better way.

This is a simple way to prayer that even kids can get. And it gives a whole new meaning to giving our political leaders your middle finger. (Sorry…couldn’t resist.) But it is eminently practical, and it is certainly grounded in the Catholic tradition. Indeed, what I like most about it is the end. By praying for others we can begin to see our own needs in greater perspective. It is an important lesson, one that pops up in Catholic Social Teaching quite often.

We read this in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church for instance,

“390. …The sphere of friendship, on the other hand, is that selflessness, detachment from material goods, giving freely and inner acceptance of the needs of others. Civil friendship understood in this way is the most genuine actualization of the principle of fraternity, which is inseparable from that of freedom and equality. In large part, this principle has not been put into practice in the concrete circumstances of modern political society, above all because of the influence of individualistic and collectivistic ideologies.”

The just society starts with a focus on the needs of others. Thanks Papa Francis.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/a-simple-prayer-method-from-a-simple-pontiff/feed/27Pope Francis the Liberatorhttps://www.catholicvote.org/pope-francis-the-liberator/
https://www.catholicvote.org/pope-francis-the-liberator/#respondFri, 15 Mar 2013 17:51:48 +0000http://www.catholicvote.org/?p=45168A bit ago I wrote about the legacy of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI with regard to the social teaching of the Church. I wrote that he understood that those theologies which insist on making the social teaching into a political theology for socio-economic upheaval miss the whole point. The social teaching must be based on the truth, the truth of Christ Jesus and on nothing more. Jesus is sufficient, after all, to be the source of all the motivation we need to love the poor. But the point is that in the “dictatorship of relativism” love is emptied of any permanent meaning and can then be filled with evil gussied-up to look like charity.

Pope Francis, it seems, will pick up this teaching from Benedict and will run with it.

My Costa Rican mother was elated to discover we now have un Papa Latinamericano. So she went looking for everything she could read about the Holy Father in the Argentinean newspapers. She discovered some sermons of his which she shared with me. Truly I can say that the voice of this Holy Father is the voice of the Church.

In a sermon he gave at the Cathedral in Buenos Aires last May, Cardinal Bergoglio said:

“When there is not love, with what ease is the conscience numbed! Such a numbness of conscience indicates a stupor of the spirit and of life. We bring into our lives and, much worse, into the lives of our children and our youth, the magical and destructive solutions of drugs (both legal and illegal), of legalized gambling, of easy medication, the hollow banalities of shows and a fetishistic concern for the body. We are enclosed in a narcissistic and consumerist prison. And to our elderly, who are in this narcissism and consumerism made to be disposable things, we throw them on the dust heap of existence. Thus it is, that which lacks love founds a ‘culture of the dust heap.’ That which is of no use, throw away.”

These are tough words for the Western world, for the first world that is ever-so-concerned with its pastimes. The Cardinal-turned-Holy Father goes on to speak about our cowardice made manifest when we look away from the suffering of the poor. He points out the irony that we cannot suffer weakness in our society and yet it is exactly the acceptance of our own impotence that is the beginning of wisdom.

The Cardinal, who battled with the government of Argentina quite regularly, had some harsh words for the media as well. He said:

“This exclusion [of love], truly a social anesthesia, is reinforced, in part, by the identity politics in the media discourse which denigrates all who do not agree with the contemporary ideology and fashion….”

That sums up the attitude of the mainstream media alright. Those who do not conform are to be ridiculed.

But the Cardinal sees that the “social anesthesia” which plagues the world is also a result of the breakdown of the family. Indeed, this lack of love is a problem of families that no longer experience a kind of love that knows commitment. There is no firm and lasting love anymore. At the heart of the problem, children continue to be brought into the world disoriented by “adults who do not know how to love,” he says. This resonates with the teaching of Benedict. When love is empty of truth, it is a false love an ephemeral love.

Of course, the answer is the Cross of Jesus Christ. Of course, it is he that is Truth that is the source of love. “The real power,” says Bergoglio:

“is love, that which empowers others, that which arouses action, that which no chain is able to hold back, for even on the Cross or on the death bed one is able to love. One does not need youthful beauty, nor recognition or approval, nor money or prestige. Let love simply bloom… and it is unstoppable.”

There is much more to the sermon, which is a tour de force, but suffice it to say that I am very excited about the kind of message this Pontiff will bring to the world. Indeed, I think he will liberate the social teaching from the shackles of presumption and confusion that weigh it down. I am confident that his presentation of the teaching will free it from those on the political left who have held the teaching hostage for so long. Several people have commented, after all, on his firm opposition to abortion and gay marriage. But I am also sure that his message of hope and love will also be a message challenging the political right to dig deeper and live for more than winning the argument against big, bad government. And I am positive that his teaching will challenge all Catholics to make our faith obvious to the world.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/pope-francis-the-liberator/feed/0Social Teaching and B16https://www.catholicvote.org/social-teaching-and-b16/
https://www.catholicvote.org/social-teaching-and-b16/#commentsTue, 26 Feb 2013 15:21:51 +0000http://www.catholicvote.org/?p=43343Once Pope, the same man did not disappoint. He has been a champion for the social teaching in a way I could not have even fathomed. Indeed, he has stressed doing for the social teaching what he has done for Vatican II, namely making sure we interpret it in light of the tradition.

Let me just point out first what the good German pontiff has written. Half of Pope Benedict’s first encyclical, Deus caritas est, was on the social teaching. Themes of the social teaching are woven in and out his second encyclical, Spe salvi, with references to hope and liberation. And the entirety of his third encyclical, Caritas in veritate, was devoted to the social teaching.

His contribution to the social teaching with Caritas has already produced fruit. From the introduction of a term like “gratuitousness” and the “logic of gift” to inspiring documents like “Vocation of a Business Leader: A Reflection,” from the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace in collaboration with the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought, Pope Benedict has made a difference in the development of the social teaching in a very short time.

Personally, he has helped me understand how and where and why the social teaching has gone so awry over the years, at least in as I’ve experienced it in the U.S.

Pope Benedict has understood very well that humanitarianism has been conflated with Christian social teaching for far too long. Social justice programs and theologies that emphasize doing over and above (and sometimes to the exclusion of) being with Christ have produced Catholics who equate their fidelity to the faith with how many just actions they perform. Feeding the poor, or protesting injustice or expressing compassion for the marginalized, these are the signs of the Christian rather than in the fundamental question about whether or not Jesus was God. The latter question is peripheral. All that matters is what you are doing to bring about justice.

Contemporary social justice teaching is not just about being nice. It is more than that. It is firm commitment to action for the sake of the poor. But it is wrapped up in the stuff of political theology. It is married to the idea that without power, true Christian charity cannot happen, so therefore power and the influence that comes with it is the measure of fidelity.

In Pope Benedict’s writing, I believe, we find a tour de force against this brand of social teaching that insists first on praxis, on doing, on action instead of on the personal relationship with Christ. In Caritas in veritate “Charity in truth” the Holy Father teaches that charity without truth, without THE TRUTH is an empty shell to be filled up by mealy-mouthed sentiment. This can often turn in on itself and become the opposite of love. The social teaching, social justice action, says the pope, must be founded on the relationship with Christ first and foremost. It cannot be well-meaning humanitarianism or social consciousness of the type which is taught at secular universities (and even some Catholic ones too).

No, the social teaching must be about Jesus Christ, whole and entire. It must be a living out of the radical love of the cross, or it is not Catholic social teaching. When Christ is optional, and sadly I’ve seen personally how it has been made so, the work of social justice becomes an activity unhinged, a labor directed at any kind of progress for social progress, however achieved, is the goal. This is not the Gospel, however, anymore than unbridled capitalism could possibly be.

Pope Benedict also had this to say about the social teaching:

“A profound understanding of the social doctrine of the Church is of fundamental importance, in harmony with all her theological heritage and strongly rooted in affirming the transcendent dignity of man, in defending human life from conception to natural death and in religious freedom. … It is necessary to prepare lay people capable of dedicating themselves to the common good, especially in complex environments such as the world of politics.”

So, cursory understanding of the social teaching is not enough. We need to understand it “profoundly,” and this is of “fundamental importance.” In fact, it is “necessary” that the Church prepares lay people to care for the common good by means of their understanding of the social teaching. We can only hope that the Church continues with the next Holy Father to provide us with that formation, that bishops in our nation continue to teach the entirety of the social teaching, that pastors receive the formation to begin to preach about the social teaching from the pulpit but mostly that the laity seek out this formation and dedicate themselves wholly to the common good.

I will be forever thankful to the good Holy Father for his helping to form my understanding of the social teaching and for inspiring me to share that knowledge with others.